{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/h707w69474/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dr. Mike Verser"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine.  Disclaimer:  The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker’s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice. \u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2016-09-15 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Oral History"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Sam Taggart (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["video file"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["family medicine","family physician","American Academy of Family Physicians"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Mike Verser, MD (personal name)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}}],"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine. \u0026nbsp;Disclaimer: \u0026nbsp;The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker\u0026rsquo;s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/291/726/small/MikeVerserM.D.DVD.mp4_1758132871.jpg?1758132875","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 1 - Mike_Verser_M.D._DVD.mp4"]},"duration":3801.96483,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/collection_resource_files/thumbnails/000/291/726/small/MikeVerserM.D.DVD.mp4_1758132871.jpg?1758132875","type":"Image","format":"image/jpeg"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/291/726/original/Mike_Verser_M.D._DVD.mp4?1758132847","type":"Video","format":"video/mp4","duration":3801.96483,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726/transcript/84365","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Dr. Mike Verser Interview Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726/transcript/84365/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interview with Dr. Mike Verser   \n\nGood evening; it is 9/15/16.  My name is Sam Taggart and we are in the home of Dr. Mike Verser of Mt Ida, Caddo Gap, and Glenwood. Thank you for inviting us into your home.  \n\n“You’re welcome.”\n\nWe’re out here on the banks of the confluents of the Caddo on the South Fork.  Remember that this interview is your interview and we want to talk about the things that you want to talk about your life.  If you want to go off in directions and ramble on about this or that, don’t worry about it because that’s what this is all about.  We have a set of questions, but that doesn’t always match everything.    \n\nSo let’s start out at the very first and the most logical thing: Where, when, and what were the circumstances of your birth. \n\n“I was born at Little Rock Baptist Hospital on September 16, 1952.  Tomorrow is my birthday and I will be 64.”\n\nHappy birthday!\n\n“Well, thank you.  My dad was in Korea.  He grew up in Lonoke on a rice farm.  He was in Korea and got a release to come back home just prior to my birth.  After about a year, they moved to Eudora.”\n\nWhat were you mom and dad’s names and where were they born?\n\n “Jerry Verser, I think he was born in Lonoke, probably out on the farm.  My mother was not too far away.  She was a few miles away somewhere east of Cabot and Beebe.  Lydia Verser was my mom’s name.”\n\nTalk a little bit about the kind of work your family did and how they got to be in Arkansas as far as you know.  \n\n“My granddad as I said was a rice farmer in Lonoke.  He had I think 8 kids that lived to adulthood.  They farmed rice there.  I used to go there in the summers and spend my summers there.  He had two sons; my dad and Earl Verser.  Earl was first to go to Southeast Arkansas. There was new land to farm and my uncle went down first, then a year later my dad went to Eudora.”\n\nDid your grandfather own land up there?\n\n“He owned land in Lonoke, yes; but, that was pretty much…..you know, they were looking for new land in southeast Arkansas with woods and they went down there and cleared land.”\n\n\nAnd they started out in the beginning in Eudora?\n\n“That’s right; I grew up in Eudora.”\n\nDid you have extended family; lots of aunts, uncles, cousins?  You said he had several brothers and sisters.\n\n“Yes, my dad had six sisters and most are all around the Lonoke area, but my uncle Earl had four girls and I had two sisters.  So, our two families farmed in southeast Arkansas for all of our growing up life.  It was I, four girl cousins, and two sisters and later on, each of our families adopted one son.  My brother, Rodney, is still living and he’s in Lonoke now.”     \n\nDid you live in Eudora or did you live out in the country?\n\n“I lived in town in Eudora.”\n\nWhere was the farm?\n\n“The farm was scattered around the area.  My dad farmed around Beth River, but we had farm scattered around.”\n\nWhere was that in relationship to Eudora?\n\n“Its west of Eudora.”\n\nWhat are the first memories you have of being a kid?\n\n“Oh my; I grew up in town, but it was a small town and we were a farm family.  We had farm land in the area and I just grew up on a farm.  You know, first playing and hanging out and in the fall, hanging out on rice trucks and driving the combines and just hanging out with the farmhands.  Riding tractors and riding combines with them.”\n\nDid you work as a kid?\n\n“As soon as I was big enough, yes; absolutely.”\n\nHow old is big enough?\n\n“I couldn’t tell you; maybe 10.”\n\nWith the name Verser, you must tell us on tape your relationship to Dr. Joes Verser.\n\n“Dr. Joe; Uncle Joe was actually a great uncle of mine.  My grandfather and Joe were brothers or half-brothers, I think; there’s a family connection there.  But, Joe practiced in Harrisburg for many years and was the Secretary of the Medical Board for many years.  I knew him fairly well, but we weren’t close family.  He was from the other side of the family.   I was doing my medical \n\n\ntraining in Jonesboro and I was doing an ER rotation when Joe passed away.  He had a cardiac arrest in his office seeing patients and he was 83 years old.  He practiced until he died.”\n\nDo you know much about the genealogy of your family as far as where did they come to and what countries did they come from?\n\n“That’s a good question and I think my granddad had some French ancestry.  My grandmother on my dad’s side had some English ancestry.  My grandmother on my mother’s side had some Native American ancestry.  My grandfather on my mother’s side had some Irish ancestry.  I used to ask my granddad, “Pop, what are we?” and he said, “Well, I guess, we’re hillbillies.”  He didn’t know and that was the only answer I ever got out of him.  That’s as far back as I know.”\n\nI would be remiss without asking you when you first started hunting.\n\n“I couldn’t tell you.  My granddad, Happy was his nickname, but I called him Pa-daddy; I hunted with him and fished with him.  He really started me hunting with rabbit hunts and squirrel hunts; those kinds of things.  I really couldn’t tell you.”\n\nWere you involved in sports?\n\n“I played football in high school, yes.”\n\nWere you good?\n\n“I was fair, yeah.  I was big, but not that fast.”\n\nEudora would’ve been a class-B school?\n\n“It was 8-A at that time, but it was a small school.  It was just enough to have a football team, but you played both ways; defense and offense, you didn’t get off the field much.”\n\nWhat kind of interested did you have in school; what caught your attention?\n\n‘In school, I probably had more interest in going hunting, frog hunting, or going fishing.  I had more interest in those things than I did in school.”\n\nDid you do ok in school?\n\n“I passed.  I did alright in high school.  I didn’t burn it up, but I had a good interest in Science and Biology.  I kind of thank my mother for that; she fostered that somewhat and I had a good Biology teacher that had a big influence on me.”\n\nLet’s talk about that; who was that?\n\n“Ms. Luke.”\n\n\nWhat was the influence; what did she do or say?\n\n“She was the kind of teacher that you wish your kids had; because you just liked her.  I was interested in Biology and Science, so there was an interest.  I wasn’t necessarily a good student in other things, but I always did well and I enjoyed that.”\n\nWere there any other people in your childhood, preachers, business men, uncles, or anyone else who had an impact on your life or pushed you in one direction or another?  You already said your mom.\n\n “I’m sure there were many.  I had other great teachers.  I had some good coaches; several good coaches who were good influences, I think, on me; not all, but some were very good.”\n\nDid they push you?\n\n“Yes, I think so; but good moral character and good influences on a kid.”\n\nWhat subjects did you like the most?\n\n“In high school, you know Biology and Science is what I enjoyed.”\n\nDid you think about becoming a doctor then?\n\n“Not really, I was a farm boy.  I didn’t put that much emphasis into studying. I wish I had done more.”\n\nNow, you said that your mom kind of pushed you on the learning type thing.\n\n“Well, you know, because she was interested in nature and things and would buy me books.  She also sought to it that we had books and things to look it.  It was just that I think she sparked my interests in those things.”\n\nDid you have a close group of friends that you ran around with and spent time with during school?\n\n“Certainly, yeah; and they are still friends to this day.  You will never have friends like the ones you grew up with in high school; you will never have friends like that again.”\n\nOr in college.\n\n“Or in college; that’s exactly right.”\n\n Was there a point that you remember or think about that you started asking yourself, “What do I want to be when I grow up?”  You said you were a farm boy, did you think you were going to be a farmer?\n\n  \n\n    \n\n“I did.  My granddad wanted me to be a doctor.”\n\nYour grandfather?\n\n“He did.  Dr. Joe was in the family and he was the only physician at that time.  I had another cousin that wound up being an anesthesiologist, but Papa Verser wanted me to be a doctor.  I wanted to farm; I was a farm boy.  Anyway it kind of evolved and here I am now; I wish he knew it.”\n\nHow old a man was he when you were growing up?\n\n“He was; as a young child, he still farmed and I went to his farm in Lonoke and stayed the summers a lot of times, but was too small to work.  I spent summers there sometimes.\n\nSo he put the bug in your ear.\n\n“He kind of did, but I didn’t listen to him. I was older before I finally went to medical school.”  \n\nAs you got out of high school, or you finished high school, what did you do right out of high school?\n\n“I finished and went to school at Henderson for two years.”\n\nWhen did you graduate high school?\n\n“I graduated high school in 1970 and went to Henderson for two years.  From there, I went to Fayetteville and got an Agronomy degree in Fayetteville.  I got an agricultural degree there.  I went back to Eudora and I farmed for 10 years; on a rice farm.”       \n\nYou did?  Did you enjoy farming?\n\n“I definitely did, I enjoyed it.  I farmed for a year with my dad and then came home one day and I said, “Dad, I rented 600 acres and I need some tractors.”  So, he helped me buy two used tractors and it kind of went from there.  I rented land and probably overextended myself.  I got caught up in the Ag crisis as it was in the ‘80s.  Interest rates got up to 18% on money and I just couldn’t do that anymore.  That is about the time I married Brenda and you know, we didn’t have a dime to our name.  She came along when I didn’t have a dime for a cup of coffee.”\n\nLet’s talk to Brenda.  Where are you from?\n\n“Eudora, I grew up in Eudora.”\n\nAnd Mike said, Dr. Weaver delivered you?\n\n“He did.”\n\n\nTell us a little bit about yourself.  Tell us about your family and what kind of work your family did.\n\n“Well, I’m one of 12; being the 11th.  My dad died when I was young, but my mother raised us all.  She never remarried and was a hard worker; integrity, just high moral family.  We all just grew up there at Eudora and I graduated from the local area school there.  I just worked when I got out of high school; I didn’t go to college.  I worked at Lake Village, which was a neighbor town, and worked some in Eudora until Mike and I married; then we moved off.  I’ve worked at different places since then.”\n\nWhen did y’all get married?  \n\n“In ‘84.” \n\n“We married in ’84; March 18th.”\n\nWhich year did you graduate from college?\n\n“Which time?  From U of A, I graduated in ’74; I graduated midyear of ’74 and then went to farm and started farming.”  \n\nWhen you lived in Fayetteville some?\n\n“Yes, that’s right.  I graduated from the University of Arkansas.”\n\nOne of the questions that we always ask in this interview is if there were there any crises that changed the course of your life.  Clearly, the agricultural crisis was a change that changed your course.\n\n“Yes, it changed everything for me.”\n\n Talk about that a little bit; I bet it was hard.\n\n“It was a traumatic time.  It was traumatic for me and a traumatic time for our family.”\n\nDid you have children?\n\n“Nope; I did not have children at that time.”\n\nHow long did it take you to make the decision to do something else?\n\n“So, I had to do something else.  We moved to Russellville at that time and I started selling real estate.  Brenda worked for the nuclear plant and I sold real estate for a year or so.  That \n\n\nwas as close to starving to death as I ever came; but while I was in Russellville, I started taking classes.  I had to retake some classes to get my grades bumped up a little bit; so I retook some Science, Chemistry, and Physics; those type of classes buffing my grades up a little bit.”\n\nAt this point, you were a little more serious about classes?\n\n“At this point, I was much more serious about school, because I needed a job at that point.  That makes a big difference if you realize that; “I got to get a job.”  So, I did much better in school there.  I took classes enough to be accepted to medical school.”\n\nAt what point during that process did you start thinking, “Hey, I think I might want to go to medical school?\n\n“Well after I took a couple of classes and I made “As”, I kind of surprised myself.  You know, school came easier to me and I was older.  I was more motivated and I did well enough to be lucky enough to go to medical school and I appreciate them for that.”\n\nWere there any of the teachers there at Russellville who had an impact on you?\n\n“Certainly.”\n\nTalk about that a little bit.\n\n“I had a Chemistry professor that I think helped me and believed in me who wrote me a recommendation letter.  Arkansas Tech was a good school; it was a good school for me at that time.  There for a while, Brenda and I lived on campus in student housing.  She worked as I said at the nuclear plant and I was selling real estate on the side; made a few sales.”\n\nThat’s kind of a different occupation to get into after living in Eudora; working at a nuclear plant.\n\n“It was.”\n\nWhat did you do there?\n\n“Just clerical type work.”  \n\n“Brenda has worked as long as I’ve known her.  She worked at Eudora Bank and an insurance office before that.  I’ve never known of when she wasn’t working since she was a teenager.”\n\nSo you took the MCAT test, had recommendations, made decent grades, and went to medical school.       \n\n“Low and behold, I got accepted.”\n\n\n\nSo you started in what year?\n\n“Oh, I started in ’89 and went to ’93.  I took a few classes at first and I wasn’t accepted the first year and I kept taking classes and got my GP up a little bit; so the next year I applied again and was accepted. ” \n\nLet’s talk about that first couple of years of medical school.\n\n“It was quite different than being a farmer; but I’d say that it was one of the more exciting times of my life.  I was excited to be there and I was proud to be there.  I don’t look back at it as being terribly difficult.  I don’t remember us being; I don’t think of my wife and I as being poor, although one of my aunts from Lonoke sent us $35.00 a month and we looked forward to that each month to go buy groceries with.  But, I don’t remember being poor.  I do remember medical school being exciting and I thought, “This is the center of the Universe right here and I’m here.”      \n\nDid you ever question whether you would make it through or not?\n\n“No, I don’t think I did.  I was determined to stay in the class; I knew I would never be at the top of the class and I wasn’t, but I was in the class and it never crossed my mind that I was not going to make it.  I was going to make it.  I was going to make it.” \n\nWhat made you want to become a doctor?\n\n“I don’t know; I think in the back of my mind it had always been there.  I guess at some point, I said, “Why not.”  \n\nDid you have any idea of what it was you wanted to do in medicine?\n\n“I don’t think I ever considered anything but family practice.  I think that was a good decision for me and I don’t think I ever considered anything else.  That was my background and if I could do that, I’d be the happiest man in the world.” \n\nWhat about the last two years in medical school?\n\n“The last two years of medical school, I thought were tougher than the first two.  You transition from being in a classroom setting to really being in a hospital.  The third year, I think, was my hardest year in medical school.  I thought it was just being in that environment, making rounds with doctors, and that’s where you really learn how to act like a physician.  So the third year, that was some difficult times here in the hospital.”\n\nAt what point during this process did you guys start having children?\n\n“We were married seven years before we had Michael.”\n\n\n“He was born my second year in medical school.”     \n\n“We felt it critical to keep the pressure off of having kids in the beginning.”\n\nSo you said, “I think I’m going to go into rural health.”\n\n“I don’t really ever remember considering a specialty other than that; it’s just what I envisioned myself to be.”\n\nWhat pushed you in which direction to go to a residency; an AHEC program?\n\n“You know, I knew I was going to do family practice and I looked at residency programs.  I did some of my rotations at Pine Bluff.  I was a southeast Arkansas resident at that time in Eudora.  I grew up there anyway and so, I a lot of rotations in Pine Bluff.  We looked at Fayetteville at that program.  Bud Walton was opening up and we said, “Gosh, if we do a residency there, we might get basketball tickets” you know.  But Jonesboro, I knew people there and we just picked that program and it was a good program for me.”\n\nDid you go up there combined with anybody?  A lot of times two or three guys will go into a program together.   You mentioned Dr. Beebe.\n\n“I didn’t know Dr. Beebe until my residency, but Jeff Bearden who practices now in Northwest Arkansas; he and I were in the same medical school class and so, we both wound up in that AHEC program.”\n\n Who was the -Head of the AHEC program when you went? \n\n“Joe Stallings.”\n\nDid you feel different being older than the other medical students?\n\n“I wasn’t the oldest one in my class actually.”\n\nHow old were you in med school?\n\n“I was 34, I think, when I started medical school.  I was in my 30s, yes.”\n\nDid that make you feel different?\n\n“I think I felt more comfortable and a little more confident.  I think life experiences helped me a whole lot.  I don’t know if I could have done it when I was 25 years old; I don’t know that I could have.  So, it was a job to me.  I didn’t stress that much over medical school. I had already been through a lot of things in my life already; so medical school was a job and I worked it like a job.  I \n\n\n\ndidn’t stress out over things like some of the others did.  Maybe I should have, but I didn’t.  I don’t remember it being a high stress.” \n\nDid you enjoy your residency?\n\n“Oh yes.  I had a good residency.”\n\nAs I understand it; at least now, I know that the AHEC program in Jonesboro still emphasizes OB. Did you do some OB while you were there and did you enjoy that?\n\n“Certainly, yeah.  I don’t do it now, but I think I did.  Some nights, I didn’t enjoy it that much.  I think 5 babies are the most we ever delivered in one night.”\n\nSo at what point did you start thing about, “Where am I going to go?  What am I going to do with the rest of my life?”         \n\n“Well, that’s a good question.  I actually stayed up in that area for years after I finished that program and worked at rural clinics in Monette, Manila, and Leachville.  So, I was traveling to all those clinics.  Dennis Parton was at Monette and I worked with him part time and there were two hospital clinics that I worked in.  Brenda packed my lunch every day and I ate my sandwich lunch driving from one clinic to the next every day.  I stayed there a year and had been recruited by St. Joseph’s; they recruited quite a few of us out of that residency program and several of us finally came to this area.”\n\nDuring the last round of college, medical school, and then residency program, did you have a lot of debt?\n\n“Yeah a fair amount of debt.  We had some rural practice loans that helped us and that debt was forgiven as we practiced in rural areas.  That may have helped stir us somewhat to rural areas, but that was not certainly near all of the debt we had.  You know at that time, it seemed like a lot of debt, but I felt like we could handle that ok.  We lived fairly frivolly.”              \n\n What was the thing that triggered you guys to come to Glenwood or Mt Ida?\n\n“I think; you now, the first year after your residency there, traveling to those clinics and it was not a bad situation, but I had hospital practice and shared call with a group of 8 physicians that were busy.  The call didn’t come around often, but it was a long weekend when you were on call.  You may have 50 patients in the hospital that weekend.”\n\nWas it at St. Barnard’s?\n\n“Yes, it was St. Barnard’s; that’s right.  At some point, we looked at this and just came into this clinic at Glenwood.” \n\nDo you enjoy living in Glenwood?  Well, you live in Caddo Gap not Glenwood.\n\n\n“We live in Caddo Gap; that’s right.  But sure, this is a great place to raise our kids.  You know, it’s on this river and kind of remote.”\n\nBy the way, you’re not kidding when you say, “It’s rather remote.”  You are right on the banks of the Caddo River just about a mile south of the Arrowhead Landing in Caddo valley.\n\n“That’s right.”\n\nNow this kind of fits you as an outdoors man.  Are you still an outdoors man; do you still do a lot of hunting?\n\n“Yes, I take the kids hunting more than I hunt; but yes.  I enjoy it.  I don’t like to get out and shoot things anymore, but I enjoy the kids.” \n\nWe had somebody tell us a couple days ago that he no longer is mad at the deer.\n\n“Is that right; I’m kind of with him.  You know, I may bow hunt a little bit, but killing something is not what it’s all about anymore.”\n\nTalk about going to work for St. Joe’s.  Were they really supportive and did they help you quite a bit in getting everything set up?  Did you go into an already established office practice? \n\n“Yes, it was established as there had been some transition there; but the clinic was established and I came in as an employed physician by them, which I thought worked out well.  I worked for them a long time and they transitioned to Sisters of Mercy and now, it’s CHI St. Vincent.” \n\nObviously, you’ve had some agricultural experience on the farm, but had you had much business experience that prepared you for the business end of medicine?\n\n“Probably not; no, I did not.  In the working for a hospital and a hospital clinic, you know you have to be in tune to the numbers.  But, you know, I had an office manager and had good administration; so that all worked out.  Always in the back of my mind being an independent farmer at one time, was “Should I open my own practice?  Should I start my own practice?” and I think that probably it is good that I didn’t do that.  I think that the way things have evolved, I’m happy with never doing it.”    \n\nYou’d be looking to combine with somebody?\n\n“Yeah, I’d be combined with some people; that’s right.”\n\nSo you are part of St. Vincent’s now?\n\n“Yes; we are part of St. Vincent’s now.”\n\nAnd the CHI stands for what? \n\n\n“Catholic Health Initiative; it’s a large Catholic hospital.”\n\nWere there any scary moments in your first few years of practicing medicine? \n\n“Scary moments; you know, nothing specific jumps out. I’m sure there were tough situations and patients that you lose and you always wonder could you have done anything different.  But, I don’t remember any glare and terribly difficult situations.  You know, you lose patients and you know you tried and did your best and you go home and sleep at night.”\n\nAfter you came here, any hospital practice and ER practice? \n\n“No hospital practice; no.”\n\nDo you miss it?\n\n“I feel like I miss the interaction with your peers and just being with your peers.  Being out here in this rural area alone, you wonder if you’re missing some things that just being around the doctor’s lounge and being around that you may miss some interaction with your peers.  However, you don’t necessarily miss being in the politics and in some of that hospital situations; you feel that you’re glad you can kind of be isolated from and that makes all the difference.”  \n\nDo you do any emergency room work out here?\n\n“No, but I take care of the Montgomery County Nursing Home and I have 100 more or less residents there that I take care of.  I’ve been taking care of that for a long time; 12-15 years.  I’m the Medical Director there and their primary care doctor.  So, that’s been what I felt like took the place of a hospital practice for me; taking care of the nursing home and the patients.  That is something that I think I enjoy doing.”\n\nSo what happens in your office when it’s Friday morning at 10 o’clock and an acute MI walks in?\n\n“I’m going to get them to the hospital.  I call 911 and try to stabilize them if I can.”\n\nTo St. Vincent’s?\n\n“Yes, I’m going to get them to the hospital to the hospitalists there; we have a good ER.  So, I’m going to get them transferred there.”\n\nDo you have good emergency services here?\n\n“Good emergency services; pretty darn good.”\n\nWhere do they come out of?\n\n\n\n“At Mt. Ida, we have a good ambulance service there; but if they’re out, sometimes you are stuck there for a long 30-40 minutes.  So, you’ve got to be ready to take care of acute situations.”\n\nDo you ever use a helicopter?  Is there a helicopter service?\n\n“There have been several times that we have had to get a helicopter in; yes.”\n\nWhat happens at nighttime?\n\n“For patients; the ER, they go to the ER.  On weekends, we have an express clinic open on Saturday and Sunday that is part of our group or system; so, there is a clinic open.”\n\nHow many physicians are in your group?\n\n“It’s an integrated hospital group; there are 80 physicians and 40-something mid levels.”\n\nI mean here in Glenwood?\n\n“Here in Glenwood, I’m it; well, there is another physician in Glenwood in another clinic.  But in Mt. Ida, I am the only physician.  There is a community clinic there, but as far as pretty much I am the only physician in Montgomery County.”   \n\nYou started out talking about how that evolved and how it became that way.\n\n“It didn’t begin that way; when I came to this area, there were two doctors with St. Josephs in Glenwood and two doctors with St. Joseph’s in Mt Ida.  As things evolved, you know, now I am the only one that takes care of both clinics.  I do that with some very good mid level help; two advanced practice nurses that help me and two physicians assistants that I supervise.  I supervise four mid level providers and we cover these two clinics.”\n\nHow does that work?  Does it work well?\n\n“It works very well; very well.  I’ve got some good mid levels that I trust and there is some turn over there, but I’ve got some good mid level providers.  I helped train them and I do a lot of preceptors when they are training.  I let them come and I’ll teach them; I’ll hire some of them.  But, that’s how you manage two clinics; I could not certainly do it by myself.”\n\nDo the mid level people that you work with live in Mt. Ida and in Glenwood?\n\n“In the surrounding areas right now; yeah.  One lives in Hot Springs, one in Kirby, one in Caddo Gap, and one at Lowdice; so, yes.  I’ve had several that worked here that lived in Hot Springs and they were real good, but you know when something becomes available close to home… ”\n\nAre most of these folks locally trained and came back home; the people you have working?\n\n\n“Yes, I did a lot of the training for them; yeah.”\n\nWhat happens if someone gets sick during the night; do they call you?\n\n“Occasionally; but you know, the ER primarily.  We have a call service; but at night some of them call, but not too bad.  I’m on call with the nursing home, so the nursing home calls.  But there again, I have a mid level physician assistant that helps me with the nursing home and he takes some of the calls; we share that.”                   \n\nDo you take house calls?\n\n“Occasionally; I have, but that is not a normal thing that I do.”\n\nHow long did it take for you to get comfortable with the circumstance that you have; the mid levels and comfortable that this system was working for you and for the patients?\n\n“Well, that evolved; as you know, I didn’t become the only physician at those two clinics overnight.  But, I think that I was early on in the process of using mid level providers and I treat them like peers.  You know, I treat them as equals as best I can.”      \n\nAre you able to get away on a trip or vacation?\n\n“Yeah, but you pay for it when you get back.  In fact, we were gone last week and it’s been a busy week.  Sometimes you feel that it’s not easy, but having theses mid level providers; yes, I can get away.  I have to do CMEs and I do CMEs and we’re gone occasionally; but not as much as we would like. ”  \n\nTalk a little bit about your family; identify your children and their ages along with what kind of work they do.   How have they adapted to you being a busy physician?  Was that any different than being adapted to the farm? \n\n“My children; they weren’t around when I was on the farm, so they don’t know any different.  No, I think we have had a pretty normal life.  I don’t think that they sacrificed a whole lot by me being a physician.”\n\n“His hours; he would maybe leave home at 8:00am and be back by 6:00pm; so, that wasn’t not too bad.  He was always home for dinner.”\n\nHow many children do you have?\n\n“We have three.”\n\nLet’s have their names and ages.\n\n\n\n“Michael was my oldest and he graduated at the school in Fayetteville.  He works in Little Rock for New York Life.  My oldest daughter; Elizabeth, we call her Elle, is a student at UAMS in nursing school.  Our youngest, Madelyn is a Freshman who just started school in Fayetteville at the University as a business major.  She just graduated high school here at Caddo Hills.  They all went to school here at Caddo Hills.  Brenda is the elementary secretary here at Caddo Hills and has been working at the elementary school for years.  She knows every little kid in the country and if I want to ask, “How is this kid doing in school?” She can tell me.”  \n\nWhere Is Caddo Hills Elementary?\n\n“Well, out on hwy 8 at the end of 240, you go left for a couple of miles and Caddo Hills School is down the on the right.”  \n\nHow big is this school?\n\n“We have around 350 in K-6; the high school is smaller.”\n\nIt’s a pretty good size school. It’s bigger than Augusta where I grew up.\n\nDid your kids use the river any when they were growing up?\n\n“Oh, they started swimming in March.  I don’t know how they did it, but they would swim when it was freezing cold.”\n\nDid they canoe or kayak?\n\n“Yes; mostly swim; but they did canoe and kayak.  My son worked some summers at Arrowhead shuttling canoes and worked there at the canoe rental service.”\n\nHave you encouraged them to go into medical school?\n\n“Had I seen some interest, I may have; but if not, I have not really pushed them to do that; no.”\n\nBut you didn’t discourage it?\n\n“I didn’t discourage it, but I did not encourage it either.”\n\nHow much of a problem was it building up your practice initially?\n\n“It wasn’t slow for long.  I remember a few slow days in the beginning; but no, it was never a problem building the practice.”\n\nWhich year did you come here?\n\n“I came in ’97 and been here ever since.”\n\n\nSo you are a community fixture now.\n\n“Maybe, I am.”\n\nWe’ve had a couple of wives tell us that their husbands became a utility.\n\n“Is that right?”\n\nA public utility.\n\n“Maybe that is so, I guess so; I don’t know.” \n\nAre you involved in community affairs; clubs, politics, local or state?\n\n“Politics, not local politics that much; no.”\n\nChurch?\n\n“Not local church; we go to church at other places, but we haven’t been specifically involved in a local church here.”    \n\nNow you came into medicine in a time where there were some pretty dramatic changes.  Tele-medicine was just beginning.  Computerization was just beginning.  Electronic medical records were just beginning.  What of these things have changed your life the most or changed what you do when practicing medicine? \n\n“Switching from paper charts to electronic medical records, I did take one year typing in high school, but I didn’t really know…it was just a blow off class I guess at the time, but it was a little challenging right at first.  We went one Saturday; I remember going to an 8-12 class to learn medical records.  I sat down there and I just said, “I can’t do this” and about five minutes later I decided, “Well, I guess I’m going to have to.”  It came pretty easily and we couldn’t go back.  We couldn’t go back to doing it the old way; it’s much….”\n\nIs the MR system that you work through at St. Joe pretty easy to use?\n\n“You know, we are integrated with the hospital; so our patients, you know they have our records and we have the hospital records.  It’s Epic and it’s a good system.”\n\nDo you miss OB at all?\n\n“No, I enjoyed OB.  We delivered quite a few kids in that program in the three years.”\n\nDid you ever have to deliver a baby at your office?\n\n\n\n“I rode in the ambulance with one one time that I didn’t think was going to make it.  But no, I have not delivered one in the office.  My practice now is more geriatric.  It’s older and I don’t have a lot of OB patients.  We get them into the OB doctors as soon as possible.”        \n\nWhat has been the most gratifying part of your practice in medicine for you and then compare it to farming?\n\n“Ok, that is a fair question.  You know, your patients need something from you.  They may need advice, you know, it may not always be a prescription; but they need somebody to talk to and tell them what to do.  It’s kind of gratifying that people come to you for their help.  Like I said, I’s not always having an infection of something; there are so many more things that you deal with everyday.  They are bringing you their problems.  How is it compared to being a farmer; you think its 180 degrees, but being a farmer; everyday is a new day.  You assess the situation and you act on that assessment.  If there is a problem with the crop, you know you need to take action.  When there is a problem with a patient, you’ve got to figure out the best action.  So, there is in a way a similarity there; every day is a new day and every situation is a new situation.”          \n\nNow we went through a period of time back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s when a lot of doctors went into cattle farming, or went into farming as a side life to their practicing medicine.  Have you thought about that?\n\n“I have thought that I should have some cows and that would be a nice tax deduction.  So, I was coming home one afternoon around dark and I was tired.  Right up the road here, I meet about 20 cows coming down the road and they turned and went up in some ladies yard as they had gotten out of somebody’s pasture and I thought, “I’m glad that’s not my cows.”  I haven’t wanted any cows since.”\n\nBut you never thought about any other kind of farming?\n\n“I did some.  I wish I had the tax deduction, but I don’t want to go catch cows when I get home at night.”\n\n So you are 64 years old and your children are off in college or two in training; have you started to think at all about the idea of retiring?\n\n“It’s still on out there; but I am trying to prepare for that.  I hope it can work to where I can slow down a little bit and work maybe three days a week or something like that and do what I enjoy.  I would like to do that for some time.”\n\n Do you think working for St. Joe will allow you to do that?\n\n“I think so; yeah.”   \n\n\nWhat do you do for fun?\n\n“What do I do for fun; you know in the spring and summer I garden.  I have a garden where I plant corn and tomatoes; that’s the farmer in me I guess.  I do fish some and just travel.  I don’t play golf; I never did play golf.  You know, people say, “Oh, doctors are supposed to play golf on Thursday.” Well, I don’t play golf.  I guess when you are farming and you’re out in the sun all day; “why go stand on the golf course all day?”  That was always what I said anyway.”\n\n Do you ever go back down to the Eudora area and hunt?\n\n“Yeah, I do. I hunt and…”\n\n “From October to January.”\n\n“But, it’s not always hunting; it’s hanging out.  I have friends and I have a place that we hunt.  Some long time friends and it’s more like a get together.  It’s just a getaway.”\n\nDo you have land down there?      \n\n“I have some hunting land, no farmland.”\n\nAre your parents living?\n\n“My mother is living and she is in Cabot.  She’s actually living in the house that my grandfather lived in; her mother and dad lived in.”\n\nSo your dad passed?\n\n“My dad passed in ’96.”\n\nHow old was he?\n\n“He was 69.”\n\nHe died pretty young. \n\n“He did; he did.”\n\nSo are you in good health?\n\n“I’m not diabetic and I don’t have any heart problems.  I could lose weight and exercise more, but no health problems other than that.”\n\nSo if you were to retire; what would you do?\n\n\n\n“Hmm, I would have to find something else to do.  You know, I always said we’d travel and do some driving; maybe even fish a little bit.  I haven’t had a lot of patience to fish, but maybe I’d give it a try again; I don’t know.”\n\nDo you have any interesting stories either about farming, or the practice in medicine, living in Eudora, or living up here in the mountains?  Any interesting stories that we haven’t touched on?\n\n“You know, as far as the practice in a rural practice, probably every day there is something; but you take care of people who need your help.  You know, one patient came to mind that can’t read and we could never get his diabetes straightened out. Come to find out, he can’t read what is on his medicine bottles, so he couldn’t understand how to take his medicines.  He would come into the clinic once a week and we would fill his box; we’d put his pills in there for morning, noon, and night.  We had another patient that lived across the street and we wouldn’t get her blood thinners regulated.  She had a little bit of dementia and never could get it regulated.  Finally, we said “When you go check your mail, walk across the street to the front office.” We’d give her her medicine every day and I know that she is getting her Warfaren at least five days a week.  I have another story that I thought was interesting; we have some friends down the road who have a lot of kids who were born at home and homeschooled.  They are good friends of ours and their little girl was chasing a frog and stuck her hand down in a whole that got bite by a snake.  A couple of days went by and one of our physician assistants lived right down the street.  She said, “Look, you’ve got to go look at this little girl’s hand; it’s looking bad.”  So Brenda and I went down to their house and this little girl’s hand was dusky, swollen, and black.  I said, “Look, you have got to go to the hospital right now.”  They said, “Well, we’ve got to milk the cow first.”  I said, “No, you don’t have time to milk the cow; I’m trying to save her hand.”  So, they packed a bag and Brenda brought the other 7-8 beautiful little kids home and we kept them for 2-3 days.  The physician assistant milked the cow and the little girls hand was saved; so, she’s back.”\n\nSo now she milks the cow?\n\n‘When they are gone, she milks the cow; yes.  So, that’s rural practice right there.  They are beautiful little kids.”\n\nWas there a hospital in Mt. Ida at one time?\n\n“I think before I got there, there was a hospital.  When I got to Mt. Ida, it was a nursing home.”  \n\nWas there a hospital in Glenwood?\n\n“No; it may have been years back, but not in my time.”        \n\n\n\nIs there anything unique about the illness, diseases, or problems that you see up here in the mountains that you wouldn’t have seen in other areas of the state?\n\n“It’s timber business, logging business; so you get chainsaw injuries that are sometimes pretty severe and some you can fix and some you have to send.  We’re close to Lake Ouachita, Lake Greason, and Lake DeGray; so we take out a lot of fish hooks.  I’m pretty good at popping out a fish hook.  You know, other than that….”\n\nWould you do it again?\n\n“Would I do it again? I would do it again and I intend to keep doing it as long as I can.”       \n\nWhen you went to medical school, what did you think the practice of medicine would be like, whether you went into rural medicine or stayed in Eudora?\n\n“You know, I probably had a vision of being in a small town.  I had a vision of a practice like my hometown doctor, Dr. Weaver that I grew up with and who delivered my wife.  He took care of the whole town and it hasn’t been that kind of practice.  Medicine is not like that anymore; it’s bigger and more involved.”\n\nWhat do you think the future holds in medicine?   \n\n“That’s….I don’t know, I don’t know who is going to take my place.  I am already kind of recruiting and talking to some medical students and residents now trying to get them interested in maybe coming in here at some point, but I don’t know if there is going to be enough physicians in rural areas.  It may be more mid levels, but some of the new medical schools in the state may help with some of that void I think.  I think they will; so that may help with the more remote areas.”\n\nIf you haven’t been born and raised in a small town, would you have been inclined to go to a small town?\n\n“Probably not.”\n\nI think the statistics suggest that that is true for most people; you’re going to get more people who were born and raised in small towns. \n\n“I think so.” \n\nI want you to just pretend we’re not here; you’re talking to your great, great, grandchildren.    At this point, you are just a picture on the wall.  What do you have to say to them about your life and what you expect for them?\n\n“I would like to say that your word and your credibility is everything.  You know; tell the truth, be honest, be yourself, don’t try to be someone else; be who you are and be the best that you can \n\n\nbe.  Don’t try to be someone else.  Your word and your credibility is who you are; that’s who you are and make the best of it; you can only screw that up one time and you’ll never get over it.”  \n\nThat’s good.\n\nDo you have anything else you would like to say on this interview?  Or Brenda, would you like to add anything else to this conversation?  Would either of you like to cover anything else that you would like for us to cover?  \n\n“I don’t know of anything.”\n\nGood. Thank you very much for inviting us into your home.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726#t=0.0,3801.96483"}]},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726/transcript/84366","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Dr. Mike Verser Interview Summary [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726/transcript/84366/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Interviewee: Dr. Mike Verser\n\nInterviewer: Sam Taggart\n\nDr. Mike Verser summaries the similarity of full-time farming to practicing medicine by saying, “…being a farmer; every day is a new day. You assess the situation; and, you act on that assessment. If there is a problem with the crop, you know you need to take action. When there is a problem with a patient, you’ve got to figure out the best action. … every day is a new day and every situation is a new situation.” \n\nHe speaks from experience having spent 10 years raising rice on rented land after he earned an agronomy degree from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville in 1974. Although he had always wanted to be a farmer, the agricultural crisis of the 80s intervened in that dream. At that point, he accessed the situation, acted and headed down a new path: medical school which was “one of the more exciting times of my life.” He set his sights on entering family practice in rural health which took him through an AHEC residency program at Jonesboro and, then, traveling to rural clinics in Monette, Manilia and Leachville. From those clinics, he chose to relocate to an even more remote location in the mountains near Glenwood to practice medicine at an established clinic which is now CHI St. Vincent’s Hospital.\n\n As part of this integrated hospital group, Dr. Verser is the only physician in Montgomery County serving the clinic at Mt. Ida as well as seeing patients at Glenwood. His assistants include four mid-level providers whom he helped train. For the past 12-15 years, he has been the medical director and primary care doctor to 100-plus residents at the Montgomery County Nursing Home. Although he plans to continue doctoring as long as he can, he is concerned about the lack of physicians for such isolated areas. He hopes that the new state medical schools will help fill the void along with more mid-level providers. \n\nLocation: Arkansas","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/160222/file/291726#t=0.0,3801.96483"}]}]}]}